Most modern electrified buildings utilize a power meter housed in a unit known generally as a power meter base, and a separate entrance panel, which together are used for supplying and monitoring electrical power supplied to the building from an electrical grid. In a conventional set-up, the power meter and base are a stand-alone unit which is mounted at an exterior of the building structure, enabling utility personnel or building owners, users, etc., to take meter readings without needing to enter the building. The entrance panel is typically a separate stand-alone unit, mounted in a housing which is positioned inside the building structure and includes mounts for a plurality of circuit breakers, etc., well known in the art. Electrical wiring connects the power meter to the entrance panel, typically by being passed through a wall of the building structure.
Electricians or other construction personnel typically mount the power meter base and the entrance panel housing in relatively close proximity to each other, on opposite sides of a wall of the building structure. Installing the electrical service in a building or replacing the power meter base, entrance panel or various components, can involve extensive carpentry, electrical wiring, and other labor intensive tasks. For example, when installing electrical service in a new building structure, it is typical for the technician to separately mount each of the power meter base and entrance panel housing, then connect the necessary wiring between the two. This tends to take significant skill and time to provide both a sound mounting for the various components and a visually attractive finished product. As alluded to above, even for skilled technicians these tasks can require a substantial amount of time. In the past, combination meter/breaker panels have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,229 B1 to Campbell et al. discloses one such system. Campbell et al. provide a meter/breaker arrangement having separate covers for a meter side and a breaker side. Various features for apparently inhibiting intrusion of water into either of the breaker side or meter side are included. Campbell et al. appears best suited for installations where a meter and breaker panel are to be accessible from the same side of a wall of a building structure, and in particular the outside. Thus, while Campbell et al. may have certain applications, various types of building structures such as residential homes, often require that the entrance panel and/or breakers be positioned on the inside of the building structure, while the power meter and power meter base are positioned on the outside of the building structure. Thus, Campbell et al. would be unsuited to such an application.